Michelle Bowman, ARC/GNY Assistant Director of Training and Logistics, writes about her historic trip to Israel to work as an MDA Ambulance Responder.

On our second weekend trip, we decided to head south for a little bit of fun in the sun at Israel's most commercial tourist destination—Eilat.

Eilat sits at the southernmost point of Israel, wedged between Jordan and Egypt on the coast of the Red Sea. It is your typical beachside resort town, with several big name hotels (one of my favorite was the Hilton "Queen of Sheba”), a promenade along the water, and some artificial tourist attractions, including an underwater sea life observatory, and an indoor, desert-themed amusement park. Fortunately, the town also included some fairly impressive natural attractions, which provided a much bigger draw for us.

After three days working on an ambulance (which is much more draining than one would imagine), we were ready for some relaxation. Initially, we thought we would splurge on a fancy hotel, but our fantasies clashed with reality when we started checking prices. Eventually, we settled for a fairly inexpensive hotel that boasted luxuries such as hot water, a pool, and (much to Kathryn"s excitement) a Jacuzzi. We slept in on Friday, and then Kathryn and I headed directly to the beach.

The Red Sea is remarkable simply because it is the Red Sea—a body of water that we’ve all seen on the map, but never imagined we would actually see. Eilat was warm enough that people were lying out on the sand, but almost nobody was in the water. A cold wind made sunbathing slightly questionable and swimming almost crazy. But how often do you have the chance to swim in the Red Sea? Kathryn jumped in first, and swore that I would quickly get used to the cold water. I thought she was crazy, but I didn’t want to miss my chance. I waded into the chilly water and then quickly did the doggy paddle just so I could say - “I went swimming in the Red Sea”.

Greater New York Chapter volunteer Kathryn Kakela mounts up for a camel ride during the team’s trip to Eilat on the Red Sea.

That afternoon, we went for a camel ride. Like Eilat itself, the camel ride was enjoyable but quite hokey and tourist-oriented. We were driven to a camel ranch just north of the Egyptian border and smack in the middle of the striking landscape surrounding Eilat. The Negev desert does not look anything like the stereotypical sand dunes of the Sahara. It consists of grayish brown sand hills sprinkled with a few stray bushes and trees. Our camel ride consisted of a short walk through these mountains, led by an Israeli who had been living on various isolated ranches and farms for the last few years. He was used to the sound of silence, and so we enjoyed the peacefulness of watching the sun set over the desert.

After the camel ride, our guide took us to an imitation Bedoin tent to serve us a typical Bedoin meal. He first brought us a platter of fresh goat cheese and yogurt; most of the cheeses were delicious, but a few were a bit too strong for our inexperienced taste buds. Then, he lit a fire directly in front of us and proceeded to show us how to make fresh pita. It was amazingly delicious, and we enjoyed our meal in the darkness of the desert.

The next day we woke up early to try our hand at scuba diving. Kathryn and I are certified divers and we had heard amazing things about diving in the Red Sea. Francis and Paul had never dived before and they were eager to try it. I found that Israeli diving was slightly more bureaucratic than the Caribbean diving I had done previously (Israel required both insurance and a refresher dive for people who had not been in the water in the last six months) but by 11am we were ready to go. Despite the limited visibility, we all enjoyed the unbelievable experience of seeing the underwater plant and animal life.

Diving induces hunger, and we abandoned our plans to sample Eilat’s Indian food in favor of a refreshing lunch on the beach. Feeling slightly blasphemous, I enjoyed a non-kosher cheeseburger, on the Shabbat nonetheless. I had to take advantage of the time away from the omnipresent kosher restaurants of Jerusalem. After sitting on the beach for slightly longer than necessary, we somewhat reluctantly gathered our belongings and headed back to the bus station. It was time to head back to Jerusalem, and while we were not excited about the weather, we were looking forward to returning to our real purpose for being in Israel—MDA.